Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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Santorum Joins the Worldnutdaily

Rick Santorum is joining Chuck Norris, Pat Boone, Victoria Jackson and John Rocker in the illustrious lineup of columnists at the Worldnutdaily. And in his first column for the outlet, he offers this bizarre and contradictory bit of far right lunacy:

Amid all the media frenzy concerning the fiscal cliff and the drumbeat to increase taxes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on another objective of progressives – ceding our sovereignty to the United Nations. This treaty adopted by the U.N. in 2006 called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or CRPD, will ostensibly promote and protect the rights of the disabled around the world.

OMG! Ceding our sovereignty? That’s horrible. It’s also untrue, as he himself proves a few paragraphs later:

CRPD does call for numerous protections for people with disabilities, and many of these protections are consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other state and federal laws. The fact is, the United States leads the world in our respect and treatment for people with disabilities – something of which we as a society should be proud. But this treaty will do nothing to enhance the status of people with disabilities in the United States. In fact, the proponents of this treaty are very adamant that it will do nothing to force the U.S. to change our laws. More on this later.

So why pass it? According to the proponents, it must be passed to improve the treatment of people with disabilities in other countries. In fact, they make the case that Americans traveling abroad will greatly benefit if the United States adopts this treaty. Let me be crystal clear on this point: This is utter nonsense!

Our adoption of this treaty will not legally oblige any other country to do anything. It will no more encourage other countries to change their disabilities laws or spend their resources on increasing access for the disabled than the laws – and the money spent – that the U.S. has already passed to lead the world in this area.

Wow, that’s amazing. So the treaty, which must be ratified by the Senate and signed by the president, is entirely voluntary and it won’t do anything to force or even encourage any other country to do anything at all — and yet somehow it still violates American sovereignty. Seriously, they aren’t even trying anymore. There isn’t even a hint of a coherent argument here, only a bunch of scary buzzwords strung together.

Update: Sadly, the lies worked. The Senate failed to ratify the treaty, which requires a 2/3 vote. 38 Republicans voted against it on these idiotic grounds. I don’t think it makes much of a difference in reality. It was a non-binding convention that we would casually ignore as we do almost every other one we’ve ever signed. But I hate to see such arguments win the day ever.

“How many of the GOP contingent can you convice to vote against a ‘puppies and kittens for children’ sort of law? We need to know, so we can start planning for when Obama nominates a mainstream, moderate, perfectly presentable candidate for the Supreme Court.”

Seriously, they aren’t even trying anymore. There isn’t even a hint of a coherent argument here, only a bunch of scary buzzwords strung together.

Why would they need to try any harder? “[A} bunch of scary buzzwords strung together” is all they need to maintain their base, and they’ve deluded themselves into thinking that’s all they need, because, to them, that base is everybody; it’s just that a lot of that “everybody” was too scared (or brainwashed, or bought off with Obamaphones- pick your excuse) to stand up and be counted this time. Next time, all those folks will really show us…

This is pretty much the same reasoning that has kept the US from ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the US and Somalia being the only UN members not to ratify it. As Sen. DeMint put it, ratifying the U.N. Children’s Rights Treaty would turn parental rights “Over to International Community.”

There are plenty left who feel the same way. The children’s treaty is mainly opposed by religions, who fear they won’t be able to physically discipline their children, or withhold medical treatment, etc. The disabilities one is typical right-wing bs, ‘they’re tearing down our Constitution’ kind of stuff.

If you are as disgusted as Ed about such drivel winning the day in the U.S. Senate, give some though to throwing a few dollars to a group that focuses almost exclusively on getting such treated ratified. Citizens for Global Solutions led the effort in 2010 year in getting the new START treaty ratified during the lame duck session, and organized efforts to turn Republicans in favor of the disabilities treaties this month.

Sadly, as Ed notes, it wasn’t successful, but the effort did secure a number of otherwise hard conservative Senators to vote in favor of ratification.

If you’d like to see the the new Congress take up and reconsider – the Disabilities treaty,
– the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
– the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and
– the Law of the Sea Treaty,

““The fact is, the United States leads the world in our respect and treatment for people with disabilities – something of which we as a society should be proud.”

He may have been speaking of himself and the brave group of dystopic fucktards that have found employment at a place that values their dysfuntion–WND.

“Don’t you mean Santorum spreads to the WorldNutDaily?”

Oozes onto the op/ed page, more like.

@10:

I saw that late yesterday afternoon and was hoping that Ed would post about it today (along with the MI House/Senate passing their “Right for the corporatists to create more poor people” in the waning days of their lameduck session–less than a day after announcing the bill, according to at least one source. I’m waiting for Michael Heath’s reappraisal of that lying fuckbag of a Governor who now says that he will sign that bill after two years of saying he was against such a thing.

I am a bit surprised that a sitting U.S. Senator would resign his seat, even to head such a prestigious, non-partisan “research” organization (read lying fuckbag propaganda outlet for teh ReiKKKwing) when he could simply have one of his minions be a figurehead and just pull the strings while still collecting the check and having his bully pulpit in the U.S. Senate for another four years.